What live music are you going to see tonight?

[kh1958]

Tutu Jones at Tolbert's in Grapevine. A restaurant with a live music stage in "historic" Grapevine and a meager crowd--nonetheless a superb performance by a Texas blues master.

Edited July 22, 2016 by kh1958

[jlhoots]

Dave Holland Quartet

[A Lark Ascending]

Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison (Greystones, Sheffield)

That was fun. I've known Willis since the 90s on record but never expected to see her round these parts (although she's been before, it seems). Just two guitars, two voices and a bit of mouth organ. Excellent songs - I've only come across Mr Willis since their last record together and knew nothing of his history as a songwriter to the country stars. Marvellous harmony singing. Two relaxed but engaging sets.

And all at what has become my favourite venue. Small and intimate, always drawing a positive crowd, into the music and rooting for the performers.  

Edited July 25, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[duaneiac]

Not jazz at all, but tonight I saw Jonathan Richman along with his longtime drummer Tommy Larkins (if you ever saw the movie There's Something About Mary, then you've seen the two of them) at a divey place called the Starline Social Club up in Oakland.  Why Jonathan Richman is not yet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a mystery to me.  I guess he's just too quirky and he's certainly never been a big commercial hit. 

It was about a 70 minute show.  That's long enough at my age for a venue that holds 400 people and had maybe 40 seats, so standing for the whole show is not ideal an old geezer like me anymore.  He did a number of my favorites including "No One Was Like Vermeer", "I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar", "Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow" and closed with a joyous version of "My Baby Love Love Loves Me".  Glad I finally got the chance to see him in person.

 

[jlhoots]

Charles Lloyd Quartet

[jlhoots]

Dr. Lonnie Smith's "Evolution"

[kh1958]

On July 29, 2016 at 7:14 AM, jlhoots said:

Charles Lloyd Quartet

 

On July 30, 2016 at 10:10 PM, jlhoots said:

Dr. Lonnie Smith's "Evolution"

Me too.

[jlhoots]

1 hour ago, kh1958 said:

 

Me too.

I thought Charles Lloyd was excellent.

The Lonnie Smith concert was a little bizarre. I thought Dayna Stephens was underutilized.

[kh1958]

I enjoyed both a lot, but preferred Lonnie Smith. The Lensic is a terrific venue.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

On 8/1/2016 at 6:39 PM, jlhoots said:

I thought Charles Lloyd was excellent.

The Lonnie Smith concert was a little bizarre. I thought Dayna Stephens was underutilized.

was it like this dawg?  why bizzare, was there a singer?  ive unforturntely missed the last time he was here, havent seen him in 10+ yrs

 

[kh1958]

No, this was a quintet--Dayna Stephens on tenor sax, Maurice Brown trumpet, Johnathan Kreisberg guitar, Jason Faulkner on drums. I didn't find it bizarre--rather smoking hot. There was a rap by Maurice Brown on one song, but the rest of the song and his trumpet playing made up for it. In addition, at one point Lonnie Smith stopped the show, wandered off for a bit, and with the help of the sound man plugged in his cane, and proceeded to play the electric walking cane. I guess that was bizarre but I thought it amusing.

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, kh1958 said:

No, this was a quintet--Dayna Stephens on tenor sax, Maurice Brown trumpet, Johnathan Kreisberg guitar, Jason Faulkner on drums. I didn't find it bizarre--rather smoking hot. There was a rap by Maurice Brown on one song, but the rest of the song and his trumpet playing made up for it. In addition, at one point Lonnie Smith stopped the show, wandered off for a bit, and with the help of the sound man plugged in his cane, and proceeded to play the electric walking cane. I guess that was bizarre but I thought it amusing.

The electric cane was strange. Lonnie also attempted to "sing" on a couple of songs. The one "rap" I could have lived without. Much of the music was fine, but I found some of it repetitious. There seemed to be some communication issues between the musicians a few times. The drummer provided yeoman service. Still would have liked more Stephens.

All in all I preferred the Lloyd concert.

Also heard Dave Holland's quartet earlier in the week & they played a continuous 90 minute set without any song identification. Everyone's playing was virtuosic although a little more tempo variation would have been welcome.

11th annual New Mexico Jazz Festival - thanks to Tom Guralnick for all he does for the jazz scene here.

[A Lark Ascending]

A week at the Sidmouth Folk Festival in Devon. Nearly two dozen acts seen from elder statespeople (Tom Paley, once of the New Lost City Ramblers probably the oldest) to through to the last young whizzes. Mainly very enjoyable with just a few humdrum acts (I don't want to hear another slick Scottish-Irish instrumental band with drums and rock god fiddler for a while).

Highlights:

Khiyo - Anglo-Bengali band from London. Thrilling interpretations of Bengali folk and popular songs, nicely propelled by acoustic bass and tabla; some wonderful guitar instrumental passages bringing to mind Shakti (probably says more about my limited experience of Asian music than about the music itself).

The Rheingans Sisters - My third experience of this wonderful duo in just over a year. Mainly two fiddles playing English/Swedish/French folk music in strange tunings. A bit of banjo too; and Rowan Rheingans is turning into a quite superb songwriter, avoiding the 'relationship' songs that dominate (understandably) the writing of the younger singer-songwriters, preferring lyrics that are ambiguous and keep you puzzling.  She also played an excellent concert with her other band, Lady Maisery - hadn't really taken to them on record but they were much tougher in this concert than I recalled. 

Lynched - one of the most celebrated of the new bands from the last couple of years and my did they live up to the hype. Most Irish folk of recent years tends to have fairly fey vocals; but this bunch are broad Dublin and sing with immense power and wonderful harmonies. Not just folk songs but stuff from the music hall. They've been lazily labelled punk folk but that's a useless definition - these musicians are 100% musically accurate both vocally and instrumentally. I'm going to have to catch them again on their autumn tour of the UK. 

Anna and Elizabeth - Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth Laprelle brought out one of my favourite albums of last year and they simply bewitched the audiences at Sidmouth. Not just wonderful singers/musicians of 'Old Time' (or whatever it's called) music but clearly devoted students and collectors. They hardly look out of their 20s yet could talk about the songs and their origins with the precision of archaeologists. Lovely to hear Anna get very excited about being in an English town with morris dancers and on the same coast where Jane Austen lived...I hope no-one told her it was only like this for a week.

Interesting that in my trips to Sidmouth in recent years it has been the American folk musicians who have really wormed into my brain - these two, Tim Eriksen a couple of years back and the very occasional English band playing old time music run by Ben Paley (Tom's son), The Long Hill Ramblers.     

Edited August 5, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[duaneiac]

The San Jose Jazz Summer Fest begins tonight.  I can only go tomorrow, but I hope to be able to see some or all of the performances by Johnny Boyd, Karrin Allyson, Chico Freeman, and Jose James.  Hopefully I can squeeze in some Kermit Ruffins along the way too.  His band plays twice that day, but both times are up against other performers I'd like to see too.  They have 12 stages going this year, so there is no possible way to see/hear everything I'd like to.

[duaneiac]

The Chico Freeman set was the highlight of the day yesterday.  He had his regular working rhythm section with him:  Luke Carlos O'Reilly on piano, Kenny Davis on bass and Michael Baker on drums.  The set consisted entirely of Mr. Freeman's own compositions.  I have to admit that after several hours of wandering from around the festival grounds, going from stage to stage, having the opportunity to sit down in a comfortable theater seat in an air-conditioned venue did cause me to nearly nod off a couple of times during the first two numbers.  That was in no way the fault of the music which was quite good. 

[ejp626]

I saw The Tragically Hip in what is almost certainly their last show in Toronto.  They are playing a show in Hamilton and then their last show will be in Kingston on the 20th.  Barring a miracle, that will be it.  (The lead singer has an aggressive and apparently incurable brain cancer.)  Needless to say, it was an emotional night.

[A Lark Ascending]

The Christine Jensen and Nikki Iles Anglo-Canadian Group (Pizza Express, London)

Christine Jensen (alto, soprano); Nikki Iles (piano), Percy Pursglove (fluegelhorn), Dave Whitford (bass) and James Maddren (drums). 

Jensen was over here working in a summer school so this gig got put together on the back of that. Very enjoyable concert of what you might term contemporary mainstream. Originals from Jensen and Iles, a few standards, a Kenny Werner and a Kenny Wheeler (the latter got very warm references). My second sighting of Nikki Iles this year (and another to follow in December with Stan Sulzmann) - definitely one of Britain's best kept secrets. I've seen Purseglove a couple of times before in free settings with Evan Parker - didn't know he did the inside thing too. James Maddren is, of course, the drummer in every UK group at present. Very impressive. Maybe Christine will bring a big band (or lead a British band in her scores) in the future. 

Never been to the Pizza Express before - fear of dinner jazz. It worked out very easy - arrive and eat after 7.00. Concert started at 8.30 by which time most people had eaten. Only previous time I'd experience eating and jazz was in New York.   

[BFrank]

Seeing this at SFJAZZ tonight. Should be interesting!

The Jazz Loft: film screening w/ solo Jason Moran performance

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

electric cane?  that is bizzare

[Soulstation1]

Saw Ziggy Marley tonight

[Steve Reynolds]

First set:

Joe Morris with Tony Malaby, William Parker & Hamid Drake

options for second set:

1) stay at The Stone for Joe Morris with Craig Taborn, William Parker & Gerald Cleaver or

2) go to Cornelia Street Cafe for Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey

win either way, I'm sure

[Leeway]

2 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

First set:

Joe Morris with Tony Malaby, William Parker & Hamid Drake

options for second set:

1) stay at The Stone for Joe Morris with Craig Taborn, William Parker & Gerald Cleaver or

2) go to Cornelia Street Cafe for Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, Ingrid Laubrock & Tom Rainey

win either way, I'm sure

It is a win-win but I personally would go for option 2, if time permits. That sounds like a pretty interesting set. 

[Steve Reynolds]

5 hours ago, Leeway said:

It is a win-win but I personally would go for option 2, if time permits. That sounds like a pretty interesting set. 

All about getting a parking spot as 1.8 miles a bit much to walk to

3rd in line!!!

[Steve Reynolds]

Hamid in good spirits. Looks like Tony has just the tenor. 

Fired up

[kh1958]

Last night at the packed to the rafters Balcony Club, in an unfortunately rare of late home town appearance, the Lucky Peterson Band. During the lengthy second set which I attended, Lucky stuck to the organ throughout--presenting a loose set more on the soul and funk side than blues, with multiple guest vocalists (Tamara, Sheron Keaton, daughter). Meandering at times, but interspersed with outrageous and super intense funk and soul. A joyous musical experience.